The present invention relates to a photographic printer having a scanner and a simulator, and more particularly to a photographic printer which is able to learn a scanner correction quantity.
In a photographic printer, exposure quantity is controlled in accordance with a large area transmittance density (LATD) of an original image to be printed. This LATD exposure control method presents a problem in that a subject failure occurs if an original image deviates in density or color. There is a known photographic printer wherein, in order to control exposure precisely so as to avoid such a subject failure, each point of an original image is measured with an image sensor to obtain average transmittance densities of the original image at image areas such as the upper half, the lower half, the central area and the like by using the measured light values. These obtained characteristic values are used in calculating the scanner correction quantity to correct the exposure quantity obtained by LATD.
There also is a known photographic printer having a simulator which displays an image simulating a finished photographic print on a monitor by picking up an original image with an image pickup device in order to avoid improper prints. With this photographic printer having a simulator, the color balance and density of the simulated image are adjusted in accordance with an exposure quantity. If it is judged that a finished print would become improper, a correction key is operated to enter a manual correction quantity to change the density or color balance of a simulated image on the monitor.
There also is a known photographic printer having a simulator and scanner which displays a simulated image on the monitor while considering a scanner correction quantity. The scanner is used for alleviating the burden on an operator by reducing the number of original images to be subjected to manual correction with a correction key. A calculation equation is determined to obtain a scanner correction quantity experimentally. In performing the experiments, a number of original images are used to check the adaptability of the scanner correction quantity calculation equation. However, since there are limited numbers and types of original images to be used for the experiments, it is difficult to determine an optimum scanner correction quantity calculation equation.
Further, the type of original images for which prints are to be requested may change with the seasons; for example, there are many scenes including snow in winter, and many scenes including sea in summer. A conventional scanner cannot obtain a scanner correction quantity suitable for each particular season. Furthermore, each laboratory will have its own preference as to the state of a finished print, so that it would be desirable to use a particular scanner correction quantity calculation equation suitable for each laboratory.